Meet the People

For having been made at MGM, "Meet the People", didn't get the usual treatment by the studio. The film was shot in black and white and there are no lavish production numbers. The movie was based on a musical revue that played in Los Angeles during WWII. It has its share of propaganda, since most of the action takes place around a navy yard where war ships were constructed.

The best thing in the film are some of the songs that were composed for it. The best song heard on the film is "I Like to Recognize the Tune", composed by Richard Rogers and Laurenz Hart. The other great number is one in which Spike Jones and his City Slickers appear dressed as Mussolini, Hitler, and figures on the wrong side of the war, as they sing a parody of a sextet of "Lucia di Lamermoor".

Lucille Ball plays Julie Hampton. She was at the height of her good looks and cut a lovely figure. Her love interest is played by Dick Powell, an actor with a lovely manly voice who was also at a good point of his career. Bert Lahr, Virginia O'Brien and a young June Allyson, soon to be Mrs. Dick Powell, appear in supporting roles.

The film was directed by Charles Reisner and the black and white cinematography was by Robert Surtees that has kept its crispness in spite of having been shot more than sixty years ago. The film would be a curiosity piece by fans of Lucille Ball.

I went into this movie hoping for the best. I like wartime musicals in general. Dick Powell and Lucille Ball did good jobs with their roles; however, the writers gave them boring dialog. The love-interest between the two of them was not given any real growth; just suddenly it was there. I did not think much of the music; the best number was the snippet we heard of Spike Jones with "Der Fuhrer's Face." The one complete number that Spike Jones did had little of his great musical comedy; pretty tame stuff,even with the monkey. Bert Lahr's comedy skits were interminable.

There were parts to enjoy: Lucille Ball was quite a looker, and there was a good selection of bit players who really deserved more time on screen.

This is typical wartime let's-pull-together propaganda, and it's very entertaining. A tour-de-force with a great cast, leading to a riotous "Heil, Schicklgruber!" sequence with the fabulous Spike Jones entourage, and a sieg-heiling chimpanzee as Adolf Hitler! It holds up well today as both great entertainment and as a glimpse into the national mood of the time. Highly recommended to all!

Personally I think several of the opinions here are awfully harsh and take unfair advantage of 20/20 hindsight. Yes, WW2 was horrible--- and you've got innumerable references to topical characters that've faded from the average person's knowledge. But a Ken Burns documentary this ain't! Valid criticism: it suffers from being an MGM musical shot in black & white with a 40-year old Dick Powell who'd had his more than his fill of such stuff. But there's a lot it on the plus side too: Virginia "The Shynx" O'Brian is terrific, June Allyson (possibly where she first met Dick?), Bert Lahr doing some of his finest signature work (it left me wondering why he was never in the running for the Fred Mertz role--- the cast seemed to love him) and honestly, Lucille Ball looks amazing, dubbed voice and all. And there's also the seemingly incongruent mix of Spike Jones and Vaughan Monroe. The stage version was already several years old and several of the (admittedly unremarkable) songs were updated for the war effort. Look for MGM-contract star Mickey Rooney's dad, Joe Yule, in the role of "Shorty," Bobby Blake doing his best to remain on the Metro lot during the waning days of Our Gang and Rags Ragland, less than two years away from his very premature death. This is an entertaining, very loose stage adaption of a modest Broadway hit geared to wartime audiences just wanting to be entertained. Far from a classic but worth watching.

Forget the period propaganda or the corny jokes. This movie has some sensational music in it, great arrangements & great singing, especially one of the greatest songs written by one of the greatest teams: Rogers & Hart's "I Like to Recognize the Tune". A gorgeous rendition by one of the most beautiful pop songs ever written or performed. Worth reviving this movie (& then there's Spike Jones).